In the construction and allied industries a number of situations exist where joints, cracks or gaps require to be sealed or structures such as pipework must be protected against corrosion. It is often satisfactory to use permanently tacky adhesive tapes for many such purposes, for example, tapes coated or impregnated with adhesives based on bitumen.
The shortcomings of such adhesive tapes are however apparent when the building, pipe or other structure is subjected to extremes of heat or cold. Cement compositions exhibit excellent resistance to extreme conditions of heat and cold but being curable materials have heretofore been mixed with the gauging water and applied on site. One proposal to use a cement composition in this way using a glass fibre fabric as a reinforcement is described in British patent specification No. 714,756 to Stewart and Lloyds Ltd. In this prior patent the cement composition is mixed to a paste with water and spread over the glass fibre fabric. While such a procedure could be carried out e.g. in a pipe-manufacturing plant, it is not a very practical method of applying a protective covering to existing pipework.